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AVATAR Experiment
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AVATAR Experiment

Organ-on-chip experiment flying crew bone marrow cells in deep space for first time.

Last refreshed: 2 April 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic

Key Question

What can bone marrow cells reveal about deep-space radiation?

Timeline for AVATAR Experiment

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Background

AVATAR flies microfluidic organ-on-chip devices containing cells grown from each Artemis II crew member's own bone marrow, making it the first personalised tissue analogue experiment conducted in deep space.

AVATAR — A Virtual Astronaut Tissue Analog Response — is a collaboration between BARDA, NIH/NCATS, Space Tango, Emulate Inc., and the Wyss Institute. The chips mimic human organ tissue in a microfluidic environment, allowing researchers to observe how each individual's cells respond to the radiation doses encountered beyond the Earth's magnetosphere.

Results will provide the first personalised deep-space biomedical dataset, informing radiation medicine protocols for future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars. The same organ-chip methodology has dual-use applications in terrestrial pharmaceutical testing and in BARDA's radiological countermeasure development programme.

Common Questions
What is the AVATAR experiment on Artemis II?
AVATAR flies organ-on-chip devices containing each crew member's own bone marrow cells to study how deep-space radiation affects individual human biology.Source: NASA AVATAR experiment overview
Why use personalised cells rather than standard cell lines?
Crew-specific cells capture individual variation in radiation response, generating a personalised biomedical dataset that generic cell lines cannot produce.Source: NASA AVATAR experiment overview
Who developed the AVATAR technology?
A consortium of BARDA, NIH/NCATS, Wyss Institute, Space Tango, and Emulate Inc. developed and operate the AVATAR payload.Source: NASA AVATAR experiment overview
What will AVATAR data be used for?
Results will inform radiation medicine for future deep-space missions and feed into terrestrial drug testing and BARDA's radiological countermeasure research.Source: NASA AVATAR experiment overview
What makes AVATAR different from previous space biology experiments?
It is the first experiment to fly personalised tissue analogues beyond low Earth orbit, exposing crew-specific cells to deep-space radiation levels.Source: NASA AVATAR experiment overview